Articles Archive - Page 79 of 157 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

“Why do we give children the illusion of a world that doesn’t exist and which all their lives they will compare with a harsh reality?” –Georges Simenon A few weeks ago I published my 300th post since I launched the blog back in 2013. In recognition of this dubious anniversary I’m going to talk about …

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Events

Wings & Wildlife Art Show Supports the National Aviary

by PQ Staff

The National Aviary’s 4th annual Wings & Wildlife Art Show began with an upscale Soiree and Benefit Auction on November 2, 2018. More than 40 talented artists and makers filled the Aviary with a wide variety of art, all inspired by wildlife and conservation. [ngg src=”galleries” ids=”280″ display=”basic_thumbnail” thumbnail_crop=”0″] The show featured participants of the …

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Arts

An Exterminating Angel

by Stuart Sheppard

Perhaps all drama should be analyzed as the Kabbalists interpret Torah—on many levels simultaneously, comprising the literal, the symbolic, the metaphoric, and the mystical. This might allow us to understand and enjoy what others may miss or dislike, without resulting in one conclusion that necessitates a myopic choice of perspective. I felt this way watching …

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This Week’s Astrology: Nov. 8–14, 2018

by Judi Vitale

“Refreshing” will be one word you might use to describe this week. Jupiter, the planet that brings opportunity and blessings of all sorts, will make a move from the sign of Scorpio to Sagittarius. This jovial planet makes its way into a new sign about once a year, so all the good Scorpio people have …

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Sports

Painting Pittsburgh’s Ice

by David Aschkenas

This is how it all begins: a man, a stencil, a crayon, and of course a bed of ice. Total time for the crew to paint the ice: about 8 hours. Follow the mesmerizing process of decorating the ice of the Pittsburgh Penguins in this photo collection by David Aschkenas. [ngg src=”galleries” ids=”279″ display=”basic_thumbnail” thumbnail_crop=”0″] …

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Special Reports

2018 Pittsburgh Regional Quality of Life Survey

by Pittsburgh Today Staff

The Pittsburgh Regional Quality of Life Survey was first published in 2011 as the most extensive survey of Greater Pittsburgh residents since the historic Pittsburgh Survey of 1908. The intent was to understand the attitudes and circumstances of the region’s citizens then and, by revisiting the questions later, determine how their views change over time. …

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Events

La Fête du Papier at The Frick Pittsburgh

by PQ Staff

Countess Isabelle de Borchgrave and her husband, Werner, count de Borchgrave d’Altena, traveled from their home in Brussels, Belgium to Pittsburgh, where they were guests of honor at La Fête du Papier, an exclusive black-tie dinner event held on the evening of Thursday, November 1 at The Frick Art Museum in connection with the current …

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Creative Capital

Why We Don’t Take Our Meds: The Conclusion

by Greg Curtis

“If you torture data long enough, it will confess anything.” –Nobel Laureate Ronald Coase “[Medical] science is really hard to turn around. People get emotionally invested, financially invested, professionally invested.” –Dr. Jonathan Moreno, Professor of Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania Last week I pointed out that a ridiculously expensive drug ($15,000/year) that had to be taken …

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The Pulse

State Store Monopoly Wins Few Hearts

by Jeffery Fraser

If it were up to them, Allegheny County residents would put an end to Pennsylvania’s state store system, which has given the state a monopoly on the sale of wine and spirits since the repeal of prohibition. And that feeling is widespread, according to a survey conducted by Pittsburgh Today and the University of Pittsburgh …

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This Week’s Astrology: Nov. 1–8, 2018

by Judi Vitale

This week will be more subdued than last, and the energy around us will encourage completion and contemplation. These activities will come in handy because a new cycle of the moon is at hand, just after some energy shifts on the 6th. The sun’s enthusiasm will connect with Neptune’s desire to transcend “reality.” This is …

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Nature

Highland Park: When Ordinary Becomes Dramatic

by David Aschkenas

Photographer David Aschkenas has been walking through East End’s Highland Park for many years. When visiting the same area on a daily basis, you begin to see dramatic changes in the same landscape due to the changing of the seasons and weather changes. As Aschkenas shows in this hauntingly beautiful photo collection, something that looks …

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American Spirit

Relentless Russ and the Virtue of a Work Ethic

by Kate Benz, photography by John Altdorfer

Russ has been at the gym for like, 31 years. “Since 1987,” he says. White New Balance sneakers. Red track suit jacket with the words PERSONAL TRAINER written across the back. Handing people the kettle bells and the medicine balls and the 10-pound weights and the resistance bands and asking for one, come on, just …

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The Pulse

The Gerrymandering Fix

by Jeffery Fraser

Pennsylvania voters go to the polls Tuesday in congressional districts redrawn by state Supreme Court justices who decided the old boundaries unconstitutionally favored one political party over another. While Allegheny County residents agree gerrymandering is a problem, most favor a different way of going about making sure it doesn’t occur again. The state’s high court …

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Regional News

Unemployment Slides Lower

by Julia Fraser

September ended with another month of low unemployment in the Pittsburgh region, but not as low as the rest of the nation. The Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased from 4.9 percent in September 2017 to 4.1 percent in September 2018, according to recently released data from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor …

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Creative Capital

No More “Bad Cholesterol”? Not So Fast…

by Greg Curtis

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as though nothing had happened – Winston Churchill It was mid-2015 and I knew I was in trouble as soon as I walked into my doc’s office – he was grinning from ear to ear and waving a piece …

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Regional News

Region Trails In Job Growth

by Julia Fraser

More jobs were added to the payroll in the Pittsburgh region in September, but not at pace with the rest of the nation. The Pittsburgh region gained 8,800 jobs between September 2017 and September 2018, a .8 percent increase over the year, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That rate of growth …

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Introducing…The Pittsburgh Quarterly Astrology Column

by Judi Vitale

Astrology is the artistic and scientific study of celestial bodies and the effects they have on the inhabitants of Earth. You can be a believer or a total skeptic, but it’s impossible to deny that virtually every culture since the beginning of civilization has utilized astrology in some way. Before the emergence of electric lights, …

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Creative Capital

The Heart Cholesterol Complex

by Greg Curtis

It is difficult for a man to understand something when his income depends on his not understanding it. H.L. Mencken About the time World War I was breaking out in Europe, doctors conducting postmortem exams on heart attack patients discovered that those patients’ coronary arteries were gunked up with cholesterol. “Aha!” said medical science, “People …

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Opinion

Redemption, Wilford Brimley and Walmart

by Elizabeth Wiethorn

The shopping cart wasn’t going that fast. For once, I wasn’t careening through Walmart like a contestant on Guy Fieri’s “Grocery Games,” simply because my cart was weighted down with two large cases of water, two big containers of clothes detergent (so much cheaper in the 255 ounce unliftable bottles), four vats of kitty litter …

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Creative Capital

The Really Horrible Versus the Ordinarily Horrible

by Greg Curtis

By “PVCs” I don’t mean the stuff they make pipes out of. I mean “premature ventricular contractions.” When people have heart attacks, especially serious ones, heart muscle dies and turns into useless, deadweight scar tissue. To make matters worse, hearts that are pocked by scar tissue conduct electrical waves very differently than hearts that are …

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Events

Pittsburgh Playhouse Opens Its Doors with a Gala

by PQ Staff

Point Park University’s new Pittsburgh Playhouse opened its doors in a big way on Saturday, October 13 with a black-tie gala event for over 400 guests, including Oscar and Tony-Award winning alumni, Point Park University administration, trustees, civic and community leaders, faculty, students and Pittsburgh Playhouse patrons. [ngg src=”galleries” ids=”276″ display=”basic_thumbnail” thumbnail_crop=”0″] The evening kicked …

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PQ Poem

i am the sea

by Ali Whitelock

that january. prestwick beach. the sea heaves. swallows herself down like cough syrup in thick slow gulps. we’d sat on this rock just two days before, both of us with our backs to the world staring out across and into the thickness. i counted a thousand and one seagulls that day watched them huddle together, …

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